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The Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) says they strongly support Thailand’s move to ban smoking inside the passenger terminals of all its airports, to protect employees and non-smoking travellers from exposure to secondhand smoke.

On February 3 this year, the Airports of Thailand (AoT) removed all smoking rooms inside the airports of Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Mae Fah Luang.

This is in line with Thailand’s Tobacco Products Control Act of 2017 (TPCA) and the Ministry of Public Health announcement in 2018 that required offices of government agencies and state enterprises, including airports, to declare no smoking areas to protect non-smokers.

Yep. In a major college in the USA, we could still smoke in the classroom circa 1975, though we sat by the windows. I was on a flight in the USA a couple days after the in-flight smoking ban started and lit up by habit. I did one puff and thought "Oh shit". I got away with that one.

In Narita airport, they had a smoking room, with lighters provided. Very nice. Good ventilation. In Cincinnati, Ohio, USA they also had one in the regional plane area. It was crammed with people, could hardly see your hand in front of your face. You could get a nicotine fix just by walking into the area. Almost as bad as the steel mills around Chicago & Indiana.

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A couple of years ago on a quiet Etihad flight a couple of Arab guys (mid 20’s) were in and out of the toilets smoking... it was obvious, I could easily smell it.

The FA’s seem to ignore it, but checked the toilets each time (I assume to check the bins hadn’t caught fire!) until it was too obvious... only then did the FA’s have a word with the guys.... that was it, nothing more!

So, If you want to smoke on a flight make sure you are an Arab on an Middle Eastern airline !!!!!

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They are simply following the trend that has been happening world-wide for decades now.

I remember in the early 90s when smoking was still allowed in airplanes. Canada was one of the first countries to ban smoking on domestic flights, and also banned it on international flights that originated or terminated in Canada.

The military chartered a 747 to take us to Croatia in 1993. Initially we weren't allowed to smoke but half way through the flight they (the military brass) decided that that last 8 rows could smoke. I swear the plane flew the rest of the way with it's nose up and tail down due to all the guys crowded at the rear of the plane to have a smoke.

A few months later I was making my first trip to Thailand. Flew from Zagreb to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Bangkok. The plane took off, you could hear the wheels being raised and thunk into closed position and the No Smoking sign blinked out. I wasn't sure but within a few seconds I saw half a dozen people lighting up and no one was saying anything so I figured I lit up as well, all the while expecting someone to tell me it wasn't allowed. Same on the return flight 10 days later.

When we returned from Croatia (on another chartered 747) in April 1994, they again allowed smoking at the rear of the plane. That was the last time I was able to smoke on an airplane.

In 2003 when I was flying to Afghanistan, I had a layover in Istanbul. You could smoke everywhere in the terminal. When you were waiting to board your flight, the departure room had a smoking area at the back of the room so you could get your last smoke in seconds before getting on the plane. I thought that maybe the Afghan airline (Ariana) would allow smoking but even they had stopped smoking on planes by then. They also had designated smoking areas at the Kabul airport which kind of surprised me, especially considering how lax everything else was there.

Vancouver airport still had smoking rooms in the Departure areas in 2004, but when I made a trip there in 2008, they had taken them all out. (I think they took them out just before the 2006 Winter Olympics).
Really sucked when you had a 3 hour wait, then a 11+ hour flight and another hour(+) on the other end before you could have a smoke. I had to "suck it up" though as I had my dad with me and he was a heavy smoker but didn't complain about it the whole way ! When we arrived in Manila and went through Transit, we found out that they didn't have any smoking rooms anywhere in the departure area except for in the small restaurant, which was closed. I even tried to get the staff to let us go wherever they went to have a smoke but they wouldn't let us. The restaurant opened about an hour later and there was a rush of people as soon as the door was unlocked. Poor girl that worked there almost got squished by all the people pushing through the door !

They took the smoking rooms out of Dubai's Terminal 4 (the small, "regional" terminal on the other side of the airport from the main International Terminals) 10+ years ago when they did an expansion and renovation. That took a lot of getting used to as it seemed that half the people that went through that terminal all smoked. They tried smoking in one of the restaurants but that was shut down so they tried smoking in the toilets but that got shut down as well so the only place you could smoke was in the designated areas outside the terminal. Once you entered the building - no more smoking until you arrived at your destination.

So Thailand getting rid of smoking rooms is something that has already happened in other places, 13+ years ago. Soon you can imagine that it will be the same in pretty much every airport in the world.
So glad I quit smoking 7 years ago. Wish I'd done it sooner !